This invention relates to windshield wipers, and more particularly to an automobile wiper system which cleans the entire windshield while dynamically adjusting to the area and curvature changes in the automobile's windshield.
Initially, most front automobile windshields were generally rectangular in shape with the shorter edges being vertical and the longer edges being horizontal. To completely wipe a windshield, a blade system approximately the width or height of the windshield is the most efficient wiper, moving horizontally or vertically across the plane of the windshield. Vertical movement is more efficient than horizontal movement because of the shorter distance the blade must travel vertically to cover the entire windshield. With a flat windshield and parallel edges, a vertical wiper system is clearly superior in wiping efficiency.
As the automobile developed aerodynamic considerations as well as advances in glass manufacture caused the front automobile windshield to take on a generally trapezoidal shape with the windshield glass being bent around the central vertical axis of the trapezoidal shape. The result of this evolution is that a modern automobile's front windshield is not flat in a single plane not are the vertical sides parallel to each other. To compensate for these changes, the automobile industry compromised wiping efficiency. The automobile's front wiper system today is a double rotary wiper system. Although modern systems are generally adequate, they are much less efficient than vertical systems and leave "blind" spots.